Once again the AAUW SLO branch staffed a precinct as an Adopt-A-Poll for the special November snap election. We only had one precinct this time as the County Elections Department had to consolidate as much as possible because they had so little notice of the election being held. The County of SLO had a great turn out of over 66% of registered voters casting their ballots. We had the 5th highest turnout rate in the state. Here is some of the feedback I gave to the group of volunteers that worked this election:
Wow, what just happened???? That was not what we were expecting. For those of you who weren't there, it turned out to be a crazy busy day with a huge number of calls to the Vote Center and a record breaking (?) number of Provisional Ballots. We processed 119 voters, 76 regular ballots and 43 provisional ballots and who knows how many Vote-by-mail drop offs since that box stays sealed and not counted by us.
First I want to thank the two groups of people who didn't work election day:
Gail Wakefield and Duane Stark (Mr. Diane Howard) for coming in on Monday to set up the election site so we could hit the ground running on Tuesday morning.
Miki Gillman, Laurie and John Schneemann for agreeing to be the last minute back-up substitutes. It takes a huge load off my mind when I am planning and scheduling election day knowing that I have experienced people to rely on. Due to some staff injuries I was a hair's breath away from calling some of you, but it all worked out.
Every single one of the Clerk positions had different procedures and responsibilities from previous elections. It was great to see everyone figure out how best to handle these keeping in mind how best to help the voters. Everyone showed up early as requested and was prepared to take over their shift.
It was great to have the extra help of Mary Howell in the morning for set up and as backup for the Ballot Clerk and Ballot Box Clerk jobs.
For some reason our precinct had one of the largest rosters in the whole city of SLO. This put an extra burden on our Roster Clerks, Cynthia Rozamus, John Roullard, and Debra Valencia-Laver.
The Ballot Clerks, Shay Blackburn, Lorie Johnson and Delfina Medina, had to be involved with the ballots for the Precinct and Provisional this election. The call volume to the Election Center was so high that we actually filled up all the Ballot call status logs and Delfina had to create a new form herself to use until the Elections department arrived with more forms.
The Ballot Box Clerks, John Papathakis, Charlene Hopp and Patricia Ponce, were busy with a stream of drop-offs and a large number of precinct votes.
The Provisional Ballot Clerks saw an unprecedented level of activity. Our experienced clerk Esther Pudlo was amazed at the level of action, significantly more than in the recent elections. Peggy Papathakis and Gary Laver had never done this job before and were thrown into the deep end fighting off sharks without a cage!
A special thank you to Esther for bringing in the coffee and donuts. The Iron Man or Woman awards go to our walking wounded Peggy and Patricia who, despite significant injuries, still wanted to come in and work this election.
I so appreciate working with this group of people. I mean all the AAUW members and their friends and families who work along side us. Everyone has a great attitude towards the public and toward each other.
I feel like a owe a debt of gratitude to Lynn Janeway because this was her baby. She shaped how this functions and more importantly how the participants view what they are doing in providing a vital community service.
Thanks to all for a job well done!
Diane Howard
